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The Green Globe Caribbean Newsletter Presented by CAST
August26, 2005 / Volume 2, Number 8
GREEN GLOBE WATCH:
  • As of August 2005 there are 66 Certified Properties in the region and 13 Benchmarked.
Green Globe International Ecotourism Standard (IES) Training Confirmed!!!
Dates are official! The IES training will take place in Puerto Rico November 1-4, 2005. This 4-day training will provide the necessary “Certificate of Proficiency” training to those who wish to provide consulting services or adopt the Green Globe IES in their own operations. The course is also a necessary pre-requisite for qualified auditors who wish to become Green Globe 21 IES Assessors. Included in the 4-day course will be the principles of ecotourism and an outline of the requirements of the International Ecotourism Standard.Also, a half day tour of Puerto Rico’s El Yunque rainforest will be included in the participant fees. For more information contact
Possible Benefits of Sustainability Reporting…
  • Maintain and strengthen trust with the community, advocacy groups, consumers and investors.
  • Link disparate functions like finance, marketing, sales and operations into a more integrated strategic vision and focus.
  • Improved access to new capital.
  • Realize unrecognized potential in brand management.
  • Access and quantify the value of sustainability practices in relation to the overall business operation and competitiveness.
Thebenefitsofgreatertransparency significantly outweigh its costs and risk!
Green Globe Certified consultants (recommended by CAST):
Barbados:
Mechelle Best
Danielle Lorde
Dominica:
Marie-José Edwards
Jamaica:
Racquel Brown-Thompson
Hugh Cresser
Mexico:
Thomas Meller
U.S./ Puerto Rico:
Jeannelle Blanchard
Jennifer Dohrmann-Alpert
William Meade
Deirdre Shurland
Green Globe Accredited Regional Auditors:
AJA Registrars USA
SGS
Trinidad & Tobago Bureau of Standards
Green Globe Certified Assessors:
Barbados:
Melanie Inniss
Wendy Walker-Drakes
Dominican Republic:
Hans Moller
U.S. – West Virginia:
Gregory Eugene AdolfsonCandice Shrewsbury
Copyright © 2005 Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism. All rights reserved. / A Note From the Editor(Jennifer Dohrmann-Alpert)…
In this issue,we continue with our introduction of sustainability reporting by focusing on the optional Green Globe 21 indicators that can be used in a report, the Sustainability Reporting framework that CAST is developing, and best practices in the region. The goal is to acquaint you with the basics of sustainability reporting, its benefits, and the fundamental indicators that should be included in a report. If you have further questions, concerns or best practices to share in this area, please do not hesitate to write in. Submissions should be sent to and reach us no later than the 20th of each month. Thanks!
200 Words on Sustainability Reporting…
This section presents commentary on the various requirements of the Green Globe 21 Company Standard. Send your comments and feedback to
The Green Globe 21 Company Standard requiresthat all enterprises benchmark environmental and social performance annually in the key performance areas against the Green Globe 21 (GG21) Sector Benchmarking Indicators. The seventh and final step listed to achieve benchmarking status in the GG21 Sector Benchmarking Indicators for Accommodations is to “regularly communicate current environmental and social performance to all stakeholders, in particular customers.”
Although at this time, Green Globe has specified only one Benchmarking indicator that demonstrates a business’ social commitment - the number of employees living within 20km / the total number of employees – there are also optional indicators that accommodations can use to benchmark performance.
Recommended optional indicators are:
  • The number of environmentally accredited operators and suppliers dealt with annually divided by the total number of operators and suppliers dealt with annually.
  • Monetary contributions made to sponsor conservation projects per year divided by the net turnover of the operation annually.
  • The area used for habitat conservation divided by the total property area
  • Value of consumable products purchased locally (within country) divided by the total value of consumable products purchased annually.
This is just a start! You can be flexible and creative when designing your sustainability report.
Sustainability Reporting…
In the July issue of the Globetrotter, CAST detailed its efforts in developing a sustainability reporting framework for regional tourism businesses. This is a follow-up article which offers specifics on the Sustainability Reporting framework’sobjective and structure, written by CAST summer intern and Cornell Student, Bruce Armstrong
Around the world, businesses are increasingly addressing the concept of sustainability—the idea that their actions today have a profound effect on the future viability of the business. A term coined the “triple bottom line” encapsulates this concept by showing the connection between environmental and social factors, and economic success. One way in which businesses are managing the triple bottom line is by creating and issuing a Corporate Sustainability Report (CSR). Sustainability reporting provides an appraisal of how a business approaches these three aspects of sustainability. In issuing a sustainability report, a company shares with all its stakeholders its goals, aspirations, and challenges in achieving sustainability. CAST believes this reporting to be a key strategy for the regional tourism industry to define itself as a leader in responsible tourism. From hotels to restaurants totour operators and guiding companies,tourism businesses of all types and sizes can benefit from CSR.
CAST has adopted a dual approach that aims to integrate the triple bottom line into the business organizational structure. Top-level management or ownership constructs a vision for sustainability within the business that incorporates the long-term goals and aspirations of responsible tourism. This vision is then worked into a strategy and articulated to all the staff. This strategy may also include a written environmental policy or environmental management system, with goals for attaining certification such as Green Globe 21. Finally, the progress of this strategy is assessed against sustainable tourism indicators developed for the framework. These indicators fall into environmental, social, and economic areas of operation.
The Caribbean tourism industry is highly competitive and comprised of independent businesses of all sizes. The CSR framework therefore takes into account the versatile and diverse nature of this sector, creating a flexible and achievable template for sustainability reporting. Sustainability reporting is a way for tourism businesses to organize and assess their stance on sustainability, work towards their stated goals,and report on their efforts and achievements along the way.
In leading this effort of CSR in the Caribbean, CAST willbe striving to advance the region as the world’s premier destination for responsible tourism. For further information email .
Best Practices and Innovative Ideas…
Focus on Grupo Xcaret’s Social Responsibility and Sustainability Bulletin…
Although Caribbean tourism operations have not yet begun to publish sustainability reports, Grupo Xcaret, operators of several of the largest “ecoarcheological” parks in
Mexico --Xcaret and Xel- Há in the Riviera Maya,Garrafón on Isla Mujeres, and Cañón del Sumidero in Chiapas -- has made a move in the right direction by publishing a Social Responsibility and Sustainability Bulletin. A sustainability bulletin is a useful model and a potential first step in working towards a full fledged sustainability report. Their four-page document details the organization’s most recent social and sustainable practices. In particular, the June 2005 edition features:
  • Grupo Xcaret joins The World Compact Initiative.
  • Xcaret distributes prizes for the statewide Children's Tourism Culture drawing contest.
  • Movie:Equinox and the Magic Pyramid filmed in Xcaret.
  • Pictures, essays and plastic arts emerge from the First Xel-Há Forum on artistic expression.
  • 53 GarrafónPark Employees Become University Certified Professionals (UCP).
If you would like to read a copy of the bulletinplease e-mail your request to
Comments From Our Readers...
This section is dedicated to you, the reader. Please send submissions by the 20th of each month.
“I read about your efforts to assist hotels with sustainability reporting and as a frequent visitor to the Caribbean, I would like to say that if a hotel had a sustainability report available on their website, it would definitely distinguish them from the rest of the hotels and could very well sway my decision to stay at their property. I think the idea of creating a report of environmental and social best practices is fabulous, and I encourage Caribbeanhotels to start to move in that direction because the consumer is interested.”
- Alison Stewart, New York, New York
“CSR is very important for this region…CSR really is an all encompassing reporting system, which shows company performance in terms of not, only financial achievements, but also, environmental and social contributions and the synergies generated by all factors. Many companies use a “Triple bottom line” reporting system; we at Casuarina used “Quadruple” Economic, Environmental, Social and Cultural. (Culture is usually thrown in with social, but we believed it deserved to be recognized alone). I do believe that the Green Globe hotels are doing this to a certain extent in that they are reporting their social contributions and their efforts to mitigate environmental impacts, but few are actually showing the impacts of the overall benefits to the community and few publish these reports on a regular basis to the public.”
-Loreto Duffy-Mayers, Director of Environmental Programmes, Almond-Casuarina, Barbados
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